How we rank, and how we're paid.

What this site is

Top Medical Alert Systems is a comparison service for personal emergency response systems sold in the United States. We research providers, compare them against a published set of criteria, and either point you to the ones that fit or connect you with a specialist who can talk it through.

We are not a monitoring service. We cannot dispatch help, and we do not sell or install equipment. If you are in an emergency, call 911.

What our research is, and what it is not

Our reviews are built from each provider's own published specifications and plan terms, and from other publicly available information about the service.

We have not tested these systems hands-on. We have not timed operator response, worn the equipment, or called support lines as a customer. Figures such as battery life and home range are the providers' published figures, not our own measurements. If we do test a provider, its review will say exactly what was tested and when.

How we rank

We do not give providers a score out of 10. A precise number implies measurements we have not made, so the rankings are an editorial judgment against the criteria below, which apply to every provider in the same way.

In rough order of importance:

• Monitoring. Whether the service is monitored around the clock from the United States, and whether it has redundancy if one monitoring centre goes down.
• Total cost of ownership. Not the headline monthly rate: activation and equipment fees, paid add-ons such as fall detection, and any cancellation terms.
• Equipment and coverage. Published home range, battery life, water resistance, cellular options, and whether fall detection is available.
• Contract terms. Lock-in, early termination fees, and how cancellation works.
• Support and caregiver tools. Whether family can check status remotely, and what the provider offers beyond the button itself.

Each provider is also labelled by what it is best for, because the right system depends on the person — someone living alone who will not charge a device needs something different from a couple, or from someone who refuses to wear a pendant.

How we're paid

We are paid when a reader who completes our quiz is matched to a provider and agrees to be contacted. That is the whole revenue model, and it is disclosed at the top of every page. This site does not link out to providers and earns nothing from a sale made elsewhere.

That is a conflict of interest, so here is how we handle it:

• The criteria are published. They are listed above and applied to every provider, whether or not we have a commercial relationship with it.
• Payment does not change the order. A commercial relationship does not move a provider up the rankings or earn it a label.

Full detail is on our advertiser disclosure page.

We do not publish prices

Rates change constantly, and a stale figure on a comparison site is worse than no figure at all. A specialist quotes the current number for the plan that fits, with every add-on itemised.

Corrections

If something on this site is wrong — a contract term, a specification, a claim about a provider — tell us and we will correct it and note the change. Accuracy is the only reason anyone should trust a comparison site.